


Advent: Shift

by FyrMaiden



Series: Klaine Advent 2015 [19]
Category: Glee
Genre: Gen, Ghosts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-20
Updated: 2015-12-20
Packaged: 2018-05-07 18:27:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5466686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FyrMaiden/pseuds/FyrMaiden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A ghost story in several short parts. </p><p>The bar changes, becomes a hotel, an ever changing shell for everyone who visits. But there's one constant: the two men who dance in the bar, cheek-to-cheek.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Advent: Shift

1\. Scene

The walls change, and the seasons. The shadows lengthen and shorten, faces coming and going and returning indistinguishable years later wearing different hair and shorter, tighter clothes. Callbacks starts as a bar, and then becomes The Hotel, and the only constant is the old piano.

Or -

The only constants are the old piano, and the constant shadow of two men dancing. A head of dark hair pressed into the taller one’s throat, as if for all the world they belong in one another’s arms.

2\. Quinn

Quinn first works the bar when it’s a hole in the wall kind of a place. Blaine gives her a job when she’s down on her luck. She’s got a young baby and no fella, and Blaine Anderson is a gentleman who wouldn’t see a girl starve. He and his - his friend, Kurt, they have this little place, they call it Callbacks. Blaine plays piano, Kurt sings, they could use a girl to work the bar. Mostly it’s just whiskey and water to a series of familiar faces, but there’s rooms above it if she’s interested?

Sure, she thinks. Why not?

It’s everything she expects and more. It’s everything she expects, and less. She loves every second of working for Blaine, especially the part where he doesn’t realise at all how obvious the love is that he wears on his sleeve when he looks at Kurt. And Kurt is the same, that wide eyed, dopey look of contentment when they’re alone enough to make her believe in real love.

Quinn wipes down the bar, and cleans the glasses, and wonders what it would be to have that love for herself.

Primarily, she tries not to stare when Blaine presses soft kisses to Kurt’s jaw and entreats him to dance with him when they’re the only people left, as if there’s literally no one else in the world.

3\. Santana

Santana checks in one night. Outside, the rain heaves down. The hotel lobby is grand, the carpet rich, the chairs deep and soft. The receptionist watches her walk across the carpet, the tap-tap of her stiletto heels muffled. She puts her purse on the counter and says, “How much does it cost to forget that love hurts?”

The receptionist smiles and plucks a key from a hook. Number 404. “Forty four bucks,” she says, and her smile is all teeth. “And a bottle of chilled champagne.”

Santana takes the key and hands over her card. “Split a cocktail shaker with me instead,” she says. The receptionist’s blonde hair and perfect tan don’t fool her. She’s exactly the kind of girl that can make you forget your worries for the night.

In the bar, piano music plays. The receptionist splits a cocktail shaker, and Santana leans against the bar and sips, and watches as a young man in a beautiful black tuxedo offers his hand to a man in blue.

She blinks, and drinks, and watches as they fade from view. She wakes up alone, but she’s more sure than ever that love is more than just a dream.

4\. Rachel

Rachel Berry, Broadway star (almost), checks into the hotel on February 14th. Her dads have recently divorced, and her boyfriend completely forgot it was Valentine’s Day, despite her very specific hints that she would like it very much if someone bought her diamonds to reflect that star she will one day be. She wants to be alone, preferably in company, where she can expect feedback on her melodramatic wallowing. Is it perfectly timed, simply brilliant, or utterly breathtaking?

To Rachel, the foyer is dated. The carpets were once fine but have seen better days. The couches sag, and the receptionist - when she finally answers the ding of the bell - is an Hispanic woman who stares at her down the length of her nose and drawls, “What?”

Rachel stands her suitcase up and carefully lowers the handle. The receptionist stares at her, and Rachel thinks that maybe she should report her to hotel management. Neither her attitude or her shirt can possibly be regulation. She thinks it, and then thinks she needs a drink more.

“I need a room,” she declares. “And also, to know what time the bar opens.”

“The bar is always open,” the receptionist says. “And we have a room for the night. Honeymoon suite.”

Rachel takes it, and then takes herself to the bar. There’s a stage and a microphone, and hotel patrons singing karaoke.

She sings her best renditions of her favourite love songs, and doesn’t cry when a beautiful boy with immaculately styled hair dances all night with a tall thin man with piercing blue eyes.

5\. Unique

Unique Adams makes the foyer fabulous just by existing in it. Sure, it’s a little shabby chic, looks a little dated, but who won’t need a facelift someday, honey? It’s faded but it’s still beautiful in the places where the cracks aren’t. She crosses it in sweeping strides, and presses one finger to the bell, acrylic nail scraping the counter as the bell dings. And then she waits.

A petite brunette appears from the direction of the bar. Her smile is wide, her demeanour professionally enthusiastic. Unique knows many things when she sees them, and an actress is one of them.

“I need a room and a Manhattan,” she says, and the brunette slips behind the desk, opens the old fashioned ledger before her and makes a loud ‘hmm’ noise. Unique stares at the rows of keys behind her, and wonders if and why she is being tested.

“There’s nothing ready,” the brunette says. “But I’ll tell you what. You make yourself comfortable in the lounge, and I’ll come grab you personally when we’ve got something sorted for you.”

Unique smiles and nods, decides that that’s more than acceptable. She gathers her purse and heads toward the bar, where a tall, beautiful boy with tall, beautiful hair presents her with the best Manhattan she’s ever drunk.

And, when she sees him flirting with a dark haired man with a killer smile and eyes that glitter like they’re reflecting the sun, she thinks perhaps, finally, she’s found her people here.


End file.
